Iran U.S. aircraft carrier trailed by boats as it enters Arabian Gulf

Iran U.S. aircraft carrier trailed by boats as it enters Arabian Gulf.

The Iranian military was set to hold massive war games across the country’s south just as the first U.S. aircraft carrier entered the nearby waters of the Persian Gulf, breaking a months-long absence.

Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards ground force, told reporters Friday that the final stage of the Payambar-e Azam, or “Great Prophet,” 12 drills would begin Saturday and include “rapid reaction units, airborne units, demolition and combat units, mid-range missiles and the third marine division.” The military leader argued that the maneuvers were purely defensive, but warned that the country would not hesitate to strike back.

“We pose no threat to any country but if the enemies seek to implement their malicious intentions and attack us we will be absolutely aggressive and attack the enemies with all might and we are practicing these tactics in these exercises,” Pakpour said, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

The drills were set to take place on Qeshm Island, located just off the coast of Iran’s southern Hormozgan province and in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-third of the world’s oil passes through. As tensions between the U.S. and Iran once again peak, officials in Tehran have threatened to close the world’s most important energy chokepoint.

It was upon this backdrop that Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier USS John C. Stennis and its strike group entered the Persian Gulf that same day, breaking the longest U.S. carrier absence in the region since at least 9/11, the Associated Press reported. Some 30 Revolutionary Guards vessels reportedly followed the carrier and its accompanying warships, at one point launching rockets nearby. A commercial-grade drone was also said to have flown by, and one Iranian ship could be seen with photographers and journalists observing the aircraft carrier.

“The Iranian craft drove in front of our ship and stopped and tried to capture their own sort of picture of what was going on,” said Navy Captain Randy Peck, commanding officer of the USS John C. Stennis, told the AP.

Despite their history of tense encounters, the U.S. has not recorded any incidents regarding Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf since August 2017, when an Iranian QOM-1 drone allegedly interrupted a U.S. Navy F/A-18 attempting to land on the USS Nimitz supercarrier. The event followed a series of maritime incidents between the longtime hostile nations, sometimes involving lasers and heavy machine gun fire.

The U.S. and Iran have been at odds since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled a West-backed absolute monarchy reinstalled by the CIA after a popular uprising in the 1950s, and an ensuing hostage crisis. The revolutionary Shiite Muslim leadership that took power has been accused by the U.S. of funding militant groups abroad and seeking nuclear weapons, leading to international sanctions that were eventually lifted in a 2015 landmark agreement signed by the two nations, as well as China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.

The deal, by which Iran agreed to curb nuclear production in exchange for sanctions relief, was opposed by President Donald Trump, who officially withdrew the U.S. from the pact in May. Since then, the Trump administration has reimposed sanctions, even as European allies sought to circumvent them in support of maintaining the nuclear accord.

Issue: *

Your Name:
*

Your Email:
*

Details:
*

Almost all The British Journal staff, including reporters, can be contacted by e-mail.
In most cases the e-mail address follows this formula: first initial + last name + @thebritishjournal.com. For example, Laura F. Nixon is [email protected]